1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell including plural single cells that operate with a reactive gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a type of a fuel cell, there is a solid-oxide fuel cell (hereinafter also referred to as “SOFC”) including plural single cells that operate with a reactive gas. This SOFC can cause power generation reaction by supplying a hydrogen gas as a fuel gas to anode electrodes of the single cells and supplying air as an oxidant gas to cathode electrodes thereof. This SOFC usually has a cell stack in which the plural single cells are provided in parallel.
An example of such a SOFC is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-179884 (hereinafter, Patent Document 1). In the fuel cell described in Patent Document 1, air supply pipes for supplying the air to plural single cells are disposed among the plural single cells and in parallel with a longitudinal direction of the plural single cells.
An example of such a SOFC is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-300276 (hereinafter, Patent Document 2). The fuel cell described in Patent Document 2 has air supply pipes disposed on a wall surface of a power generation chamber (a cell chamber), in which plural single cells are housed, and projected into the power generation chamber. The air is delivered from plural jetting holes formed in this air supply pipes to the single cells to supply the air to cathode electrodes of the single cells.
An example of such a SOFC is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-34205 (hereinafter, Patent Document 3). The fuel cell described in Patent Document 3 has a reactive gas lead-in member disposed in a power generation chamber to sandwich a cell stack, in which plural single cells are provided in parallel, from both sides thereof. The air is discharged from plural openings, which are formed in a lower part of the reactive gas lead-in member, into the power generation chamber and blown against the sides of the cell stack.
A fuel cell is required to efficiently perform stable power generation reaction. As one of methods that satisfy this requirement, there is a method of uniformly supplying a reactive gas containing a fuel gas and an oxidant gas to respective single cells included in a cell stack.
However, in Patent Document 1, there is no reference to the uniform supply of the reactive gas to the respective plural single cells. The fuel cell described in Patent Document 1 needs spaces for disposing the air supply pipes among the single cells. In the fuel cell, it is difficult to further reduce the size of the power generation chamber. When the fuel cell is assembled, there is a risk that the single cells and the air supply pipes collide with each other and a deficiency such as breakage of the single cells occurs.
Like the fuel cell described in Patent Document 1, the fuel cell described in Patent Document 2 needs spaces for disposing the air supply pipes. When the fuel cell described in Patent Document 2 is assembled, there is a risk that the single cells and the air supply pipes collide with each other and a deficiency such as breakage of the single cells occurs. In this fuel cell, for the purpose of evenly dispersing the air in the power generation chamber, the plural jetting holes are formed in the air supply pipes. However, a configuration for efficiently, surely, and equally supplying the air to the single cells arranged near the jetting holes, the single cells arranged far from the jetting holes, or the single cells arranged in the middle of the cell stack is not examined.
In the fuel cell described in Patent Document 3, the plural openings are formed in the lower part of the reactive gas lead-in member and the air is blown against the sides of the cell stack from the openings. This fuel cell has a problem same as that of the fuel cell described in Patent Document 2. Specifically, a configuration for efficiently, surely, and equally supplying the air to the single cells arranged near the openings, the single cells arranged far from the openings, or the single cells arranged in the middle of the cell stack is not examined.